“They’ve remembered we’re here,” Simone says. She starts back up the ramp into the scout ship. “I’ll get something for your ankles, Viola, then I’ll contact the convoy. Though I don’t even know where to begin explaining . . .”
She disappears into the ship. Bradley comes over to me again. He reaches over and gently squeezes my shoulder. “I’m so sorry about your parents, Viola. More than I can say.”
I blink away fresh wet from my eyes, not just at the memory of my mum and dad dying in our crash, but at Bradley’s kindness–
And then I remember, almost with a gasp, that it was Bradley who gave me the gift that proved so useful, the box that made the fire, the box that made a light against the darkness, the box that eventually blew up a whole bridge to save me and Todd.
“It flickers,” I say.
“What’s that?” he says, looking up.
“Way back on the convoy,” I say, “you asked me to tell you what the night sky looks like by firelight, because I’d be the first one to know. It flickers.”
He smiles, remembering. He breathes in deep through his nose. “So this is what fresh air smells like,” he says, because of course it’s the first time he’s ever breathed it. He spent his whole life on a ship, too. “It’s different than I expected.” He looks back at me. “Stronger.”
“Lots of things are different than we expected.”
He squeezes my shoulder again. “We’re here now, Viola,” he says. “You’re not alone any more.”
I swallow and look back at the projection. “I wasn’t alone.”
Bradley sighs again, looking with me. It flickers, he says.
“We’ll have to build a fire so you can see for yourself,” I say.
“See what?”
“That it flickers.”
He looks at me puzzled for a minute. “What you said earlier?”
“No,” I say. “Just now, you said–”
What’s she talking about? he says.
But he doesn’t say it.
And my stomach turns in a knot.
No.
Oh, no.
“Did you hear that?” he says, looking even more puzzled and turning around. “It sounded like my voice . . .”
But how could it be my–? he thinks and then stops.
He looks back at me.
And Viola? he says.
But he says it in his Noise.
He says it in his brand-new Noise.
[TODD]
I hold the bandage to the wound on Angharrad’s flank and let the medicine enter her bloodstream. She still don’t say nothing, but I keep my hands on her, keep saying her name.
Horses can’t be alone and I need to tell her I’m part of her herd.
“Come back to me, Angharrad,” I whisper into her ears. “Come on, girl.”
I look over to the Mayor, talking to his men, and I try to think how the hell it came to this.
We had him beat. We did. Beaten and tied up and we’d won.
But now.
Now he’s just walking round again like he owns the place, like he’s completely in charge of the whole goddam world again, like what I did to him and how I beat him is of no concern at all.
But I did beat him. And I will again.
I untied a monster to save Viola.
And now I’ve somehow gotta keep hold of the leash.
“The eye in the sky is still there,” he says to me, walking over and looking up to the dot of light the Mayor’s pretty sure is a probe of some kind. We first saw it hovering over us an hour ago when the Mayor was giving orders to his captains, telling ’em to build a camp down here at the bottom of the hill, to send out spies to see what we’re up against and send out other troops to find out what’s happened to the army of the Answer.
But so far no one’s been sent to the scout ship.
“They can see us already,” the Mayor says, still looking up. “When they want to meet, they can just come to me, now, can’t they?”
He looks round us slowly, at the men sorting themselves out for what’s left of the night.
“Just listen to the voices,” he says, in a strange whisper.
The air is still filled with the Noise of the men but the look in the Mayor’s eyes makes me wonder if he’s talking bout something else.
“What voices?” I ask.
He blinks, like he’s surprised I’m still here. He smiles again and reaches out a hand to rest on Angharrad’s mane.
“Don’t touch her,” I say and I stare at him till he takes his hand away.
“I know how you feel, Todd,” he says gently.
“No, you don’t.”
“I do,” he insists. “I remember my first battle in the very first Spackle War. You think you’re going to die now. You think this is the worst thing you’ve ever seen and how can you live now you’ve seen it? How can anyone live after seeing it?”
“Get outta my head,” I say.
“I’m only talking, Todd. That’s all I’m doing.”
I don’t answer him. I just keep whispering to Angharrad. “I’m here, girl.”
“But you’ll be fine,” the Mayor says. “So will your horse. You’ll both be stronger. You’ll be better for it.”
I look at him. “How can anyone be better after that? How can anyone be more of a man after that?”
He leans down close to me. “Because it was exciting, too, wasn’t it?”
I don’t say nothing to that.
(cuz it was–)
(for a minute there–)
But then I remember the soldier dying, the one reaching for his baby son in his Noise, the one who won’t never see him again–
“You felt the excitement when we chased them up the hill,” the Mayor’s saying. “I saw it. It blazed through your Noise like a fire. Every man in the army felt the same thing, Todd. You’re never more alive than in battle.”
“Never more dead after,” I say.
“Ah, philosophy,” he smiles. “I didn’t know you had it in you.”
I turn away from him, back to Angharrad.
And then I hear it.
I AM THE CIRCLE AND THE CIRCLE IS ME.
I look back at him and I slap VIOLA at him.
He flinches but he don’t lose his smile. “Exactly, Todd,” he says. “I said it before. Control your Noise and you control yourself. Control yourself–”
“And you control the world,” I finish. “Yeah, I heard you the first time. I only wanna control myself, thank you. I ain’t got no interest in the rest of the world.”